California Spangle just last month took down Golden Sixty, the best horse in Hong Kong over the last three racing seasons. That feat accomplished, California Spangle faces the horse who might be Hong Kong’s best, Romantic Warrior, in the Group 1, $1.53 million Stewards' Cup on Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse.   California Spangle versus Romantic Warrior alone would be must-watch racing. The presence of gently aging Golden Sixty makes the Stewards' Cup the most anticipated Hong Kong race in years.  The Stewards' Cup, a one-turn 1,600-meter contest carded as the seventh of 10 races, shares top billing on Sunday’s program with the $1.53 million Hong Kong Classic Mile, first leg of the 4-year-old Classic Series. First post is 1 a.m. Eastern. Watch and wager at DRFBets.com.  It’s not the 4-year-old Classic Series that the Hong Kong Jockey Club bills as the jurisdiction’s version of the Triple Crown, but three races open to older horses beginning with the Stewards' Cup, progressing to the Queen Elizabeth II Cup over 2,000 meters, and concluding with the 2,400-meter Champions and Chater Cup.   :: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, analysis, replays, and live streaming It’s that series Romantic Warrior’s connections have designs upon – and they just might have the horse to do it.  Romantic Warrior, an Ireland-bred 5-year-old by Acclamation, has won nine of his 10 career starts, his lone loss costing him a sweep last season of the 4-year-old Classic Series. That defeat last February was entirely excusable. Saddled with post 13 in the 1,800-meter Hong Kong Classic Cup, Romantic Warrior and jockey Karis Teetan found themselves in no-man’s land, caught four paths wide with no cover down the long back straight and, worse still, all the way around the race’s one turn. While Romantic Warrior plugged along gamely to just miss third, uncovered ground loss had done him in.   It was California Spangle who took advantage of Romantic Warrior’s misfortune, winning the Classic Cup on the front end, a victory sandwiched between second-place finishes behind Romantic Warrior in the Classic Mile and over 2,000 meters in the Hong Kong Derby. The pair’s paths diverged this season. While Romantic tried longer races, California Spangle stuck to 1,600-meter starts. He won the first two of them, falling by a neck to a withering run from Golden Sixty in the Jockey Club Mile, then turning the tables on Golden Sixty winning the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile while racing at level weights. California Spangle, the mount of Zac Purton, has won nine of 14 starts, with Romantic Warrior and Golden Sixty the only horses to beat him since a defeat the third time he raced. California Spangle plies his trade on the front end and is very likely to lead Sunday’s seven-horse tilt.  It would be disrespectful to find much fault with Golden Sixty, a 7-year-old bred on Southern Hemisphere time whose career mark stands at a gaudy 22-2-1 from 26 outings. Yet his loss last month in the Hong Kong Mile, which he’d won in 2021 and 2022, had a different character than two defeats Golden Sixty took during the 2021-22 season. One of those clearly related to pilot error and the other came in a 2,000-meter race run over a course with too much give in the ground for Golden Sixty. Last month? No apparent excuse. Golden Sixty got into favorable position and simply couldn’t run down his younger rival. Could he bounce back? Not impossible, but all reigns come to an end, and Golden Sixty’s might be fading.  Romantic Warrior is rising. Late to return to racing this season, Romantic Warrior made his comeback in the 2,000-meter Jockey Club Cup, winning comfortably, and followed that with one of the better worldwide performances of 2022, a 4 1/2-length score in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup, another 2,000-meter race. The start over a shorter trip on Sunday long has been planned by trainer Danny Shum, and Romantic Warrior has the tactical pace and turn of foot to cut back successfully. Teetan, who gave way to jockey James McDonald in the last two starts because of a thyroid condition, regains the mount.  Horses with less established form and more latitude for improvement populate the Classic Mile, which drew 14 entrants. Cordyceps Six, easily top rated at 111, looks too much like a sprinter for this longer distance, but Packing Treadmill, rated 93, might be the right horse. Seemingly the choice of Purton, who has ridden several of these, Packing Treadmill overcame a three-wide uncovered trip from post 12 to notch a Class 2 handicap win over 1,400 meters Nov. 27 at Sha Tin, and about a month later won again while trying 1,600 meters for the first time in another Class 2. There, Packing Treadmill was able to save ground from his rail draw, but he was hemmed in at the 400-meter mark before finding room to operate and rallying gamely between rivals.   In the same race, Keefy finished third, beaten one length, but gave Packing Treadmill a whopping 14 pounds while dropping down in class from a 3 1/2-length romp in a Class 1. Everyone carries 126 pounds Sunday, meaning Keefy has a serious chance to reverse the outcome. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.